Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor D Brailsford, Councillor Mrs P A Bradwell, J Tubb, A Fisher, C Seymour, Dr V Bhandal, J Spencer, T Blackwell, P Roberts, J Allan, who was represented by L Houtby, and K Parsons, who was represented by M Sowerby.

Points of Accuracy

Minute Number 3, paragraph 5 – it was felt that the paragraph was misleading and suggested that a further tranche of funding was to be made available.  It was agreed to amend "further tranche" to "further consultation".

Minute Number 4, paragraph 3, should read "MAPPA" not "MAPA".  Also in this paragraph, the boards referred to were the Children's and Adults Safeguarding Boards.

Matters Arising

a)Ginny Blackoe provided an update that a sustainable services review had been commissioned which intended to consider the reconfiguration of Health Services working in an integrated way with social care were to be organised in the future.  A consultation process had been commenced and it was understood that the Programme Board met that morning and was chaired by Tony Hill.  PriceWaterhouseCooper had been commissioned to undertake the review within a timeframe of four months.  The review would be informed by four specific focus groups – acute care, women and children, prevention and early intervention management.

b)Chris Cook provided an update regarding autism, advising that the Head of Children with Disabilities was to link into a project for an autism pathway which would be scoped over the next four weeks.

c)    Minute number 6, resolution 2 – Youth Housing – the Chair confirmed that the strategy could not be presented at this meeting as it had been deferred from a previous meeting of the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee and was only considered the previous week.  This would be considered at a future meeting of the Partnership, once available.

d)Minute number 8 – Inspection Update – a new framework would be launched for consultation in September 2013 with an expected roll out of inspection start dates by November 2013.  OfSTED had confirmed that they would not be undertaking any more child protection inspections until the new framework came in to place.

e)Minute number 9 – Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) – Chris Cook explained that this was managed through the Public Protection Board, of which he was Chairman, and reassured the Partnership that this would be taken forward.

f)     Minute number 10 – Northumberland's Approach to Risk Management – Stuart Carlton advised that a project manager had now been appointed which would provide capacity to be able to consider how this could be implemented.  Partner arrangements would also be considered in coming months.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 17April 2013 be confirmed and agreed as a true record.

(Debbie Barnes)

The Partnership received an update from Debbie Barnes, Chair, which highlighted key areas to the Partnership:-

a)Additional Capital Fund bids had been submitted for Further Educational Colleges, a number of which had been successful, which meant enhanced support for post-16 learners with Learning Disabilities could now be offered.  Linda Houtby formally noted her thanks for the support received from Lincolnshire County Council during the bidding process and confirmed that they were the only successful bidder for post-16 LD in the East Midlands.

b)A further award of £3m had been received towards capital for new schools places.

c)    Lincolnshire was seeing a small expansion in the number of free schools.  Schools in Boston and Spalding had been opened plus an alternative provision free school in Lincoln.  There were also proposals for two secondary free schools in Lincoln and Newark.

d)A further 10% cut to Local Authority spending as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review was confirmed from 2015.  Schools were protected under a minimum funding guarantee.

e)The Chair announced that Meredith Teasdale, Assistant Director for Children's Services, would be leaving the authority and moving to Cambridgeshire.  She formally noted the Partnership's thanks and wished her well for the future.

RESOLVED

          That the update be noted.

(Chris Cook)

The Partnership received an update from Chris Cook, Chair of the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board:-

a)An appointment of a Child Sex Exploitation (CSE) Coordinator had now been made.

b)Following recent Serious Case Reviews, it was acknowledged that the media focus was on Social Care. It was, in fact, multi-agency failure and something which would be actively worked on.

c)    A further Serious Case Review was anticipated following a trial set for October 2013.

d)Child Sex Exploitation – a number of action plans from different government agencies, with similar content, had been issued.  As a group of independent Chairs, they were currently trying to guide the centre in having one action plan.  As noted above, a coordinator had now been appointed and a lot of work undertaken already.

e)A Task & Finish Group was underway in relation to an elearning package on exploitation which had been developed with pathways and lesson plans.  Joint working with Barnardos nationally had resulted in them being prepared to fund the package, giving Lincolnshire unlimited licenses.  Merchandise with relevant numbers, website details, etc, was currently being investigated to circulate to young people.  The Partnership noted their formal thanks for the work undertaken and the success so far.

f)     A conference had been organised around the newly emerging drugs and illegal highs.  The police were also working with Trading Standards but it was suggested that this should, also, be multi-agency and be better tied together.

g)A Child Sex Exploitation (CSE) conference was to be arranged in November 2013 but no details had yet been received.  It was expected this would be an East Midlands Regional Conference with the venue possibly being Newark.

h)   A Lay Member had also been appointed for the Children's Safeguarding Board.

RESOLVED

          That the update be noted.

(Kerry Mitchell)

The Partnership received an update from Kerry Mitchell with regard to the Lincolnshire Participation Group (LPAG), which made reference to the following issues:-

·    Anti-bullying – It reported that a three year strategy had been suggested, which would involve a lot more work being done;

·    Anti-bullying film.  It was noted that media based companies already being used would be approached; 

·    Lincolnshire Participation Action Group – The Partnership were advised that the group were not a consultation group;

·    Some discussion was had as to whether the Partnership felt comfortable having anti-bullying being featured so strongly in the last two iterations of the plan. As a result of a news release following the suicide of Anna Smith in Lutterworth, it was felt that bullying now had wider safeguarding issues and that more could be done under the broader scope of safeguarding, as more resource was available;

·    Inclusion of bullying on the Safeguarding website was a priority; and

·    The need to go into schools and colleges to re-educate pupils and students with regard to bullying. 

In conclusion, the Partnership agreed that the issue of bullying needed to be strategically shifted so that it was located in the plan, as more of a safeguarding issue rather than an educational issue.  The Safeguarding Board would then be able to scrutinise it.

RESOLVED

          That the issue of bullying be moved in the plan to become more of    safeguarding issue rather that an educational issue.

(Maggie Freeman)

No update was received in respect of this item.

.

(David McWilliams)

Consideration was given to the Lincolnshire Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership – Governance Arrangements and Terms of Reference 2013/15.  A copy of the Terms of Reference had been circulated to members of the Partnership to consider before the meeting.

David McWilliams, Head of Performance Assurance presented the Terms of Reference to the Partnership, making particular reference to:-

·    Paragraph 1.3 – The Partnership's responsibility for monitoring the extent to which the partners act in accordance with the Children and Young People's Plan and the publishing of an annual report.  It was highlighted to the Partnership that this now needed to be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board;

·    Paragraph 5.1 - Bullet point seven, the Partnership were advised that participating would mean 'participating fully in the work of the CYPSP through attendance (a 70% attendance rate was expected and would be recorded), active participation (monitored through auditing of completion of key actions identified at CYPSP)';

·    Paragraph 6.2 - That agenda and papers would be sent out at least seven working days before each meeting;  

·    Paragraph 6.3 - That the minutes would be distributed within ten days of the meeting.  This matter would need to be discussed further with Democratic Services;

·    Paragraph 6.4 – Declarations of representatives interests';

·    Paragraph 9.0  - Principles, it was highlighted that there should be six principles and not three as detailed; and

·    Paragraph 11 – The Accountability Framework.

Discussion ensued, from which the following issues were raised:-

·    Inclusion of the Lincolnshire Participation Action Group;

·    Consequences of not hitting the required attendance.  The Partnership were advised CYPSP had no formal powers but it was hoped that expected standards and making this public would influence behaviours;

·    Substitution - The terms of reference provided that only representatives or a person nominated as a named substitute would be able to attend meetings in their absence.  Members were encourage to nominate a named substitute as this would indicate a commitment to the committee;

·     Health Providers – It was felt that there was a need to agree who they are and what the linking mechanisms were.  Some members felt that health representation was a key link;

·    Head Teachers potential representation;

·    Process for dealing with non-attendance of staff;

·    Agenda Structure and advance advertising. Concerns were raised regarding the layout of the agenda as it was felt that it was hard to identify which items required a decision and which were for information only.  Reference was also made to the potential for meetings being conducted by telephone/video conferencing;

·    Provision of papers seven days before the meeting.  It was suggested that members who were unable to attend the meeting should provide a written update for the Partnership to consider; and

·    The need to get draft minutes circulated within 10 days.  A suggestion was also made to having updated actions when the papers were distributed.

In conclusion, David McWilliams advised that development day activities should structure the work of the partnership and would also help in deciding who should be included around the table.  It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

(Stuart Carlton)

Stuart Carlton, Assistant Director for Children's Services presented to the Partnership Lincolnshire's Early Help Offer and Strategy.  The Assistant Director highlighted that the draft document was at a very early stage of development.

Members of the Partnership were invited to express their views on the documents presented.

During discussion, the following issues were raised:-

·    Early Help Offer document – some debate was had relating to the early help for families that the four outcomes steered towards children and that it was difficult to bring the two areas together.  Others felt that the four outcomes for families did impact on children and should be included. 

It was agreed that the document would be tidied up, followed by stocktake, the document would then help everyone to work together.

The Partnership then gave consideration to the Early Help Strategy.  The Assistant Director advised that the document would be reviewed and refreshed in order to modernise early help moving forward and that this should be started off in the governance of the children's partnership.

During consideration, the following issues were raised:-

·    That a glossary was required for the acronyms;

·    That the document highlighted a lot of crossover issues.  Some questions were raised in relation to the timescale involved in order to reduce harm; and understanding the involvement of all partners; and

·    Risk Strategy Management – A question was asked why the Council was looking at introducing a Risk Management System for risky behaviour.  The Partnership were advised that there were a range of young people (teenagers) who displayed risky behaviours, and at the moment there was no process to strategically gather this data.

RESOLVED

             That that the Assistant Director would take on board the comments                  raised when finalising the Early Help Offer document and the Early                 Help Strategy.

(David McWilliams)

David McWilliams, Head of Performance Assurance provided an update on the Children and Young People's Plan.  The Partnership was advised that during the last fortnight the following items had been finalised:-

·    The Local Authority Performance measures;

·    The tying in of all Strategic documents; and

·    That a finalised version would be available by the end of the month for comments.

It was reported that the plan would be presented to the September meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board.  It was then hoped that there would be a finalised version ready for sharing at the Development Day on 7 October 2013.  The plan would then be considered by LSCB on 17 October 2013.

During discussion, Partnership members were advised that in relation to governance arrangements for individual organisations, partners would have to decide what they needed to do, but from a Lincolnshire County Council perspective the plan would have to go through the formal decision making process.

A question was raised as to whether an individual officer present at the meeting should be agreeing and signing up to the Plan.  The Partnership was advised that the organisation had to formally sign up to the plan, but it was their decision as to how this was done.  It was suggested the Terms of Reference should include that a corporate sign off was required.

RESOLVED

          That the update on the Children & Young People's Plan be noted.       

(Paula Whitehead)

The Partnership gave consideration to a report from Paula Whitehead, LSCB Business Manager, which provided an update on the Team around the Child Audit.

It was reported that in January 2013, Lincolnshire Safeguarding Board had made a decision to conduct a multi-agency audit of cases within the Team around the Child Process (TAC).  The decision had been made in order to assess the effectiveness of multi-agency early help as part of the Board's recently established Learning and Improvement Framework. The prioritisation of the audit had been prompted by two significant cases, but also because of the wish to drive forward progress in multi-agency ownership Lincolnshire's Early Help Offer.

In guiding the Partnership through the report, particular reference was made to the recommendations shown at page 28 of the agenda, from which the following comments were made:-

·         The Challenges for CAF TAC and with regard to resources and funding;

·         Some concern was raised as to whether current processes were robust enough, and that more reassurance was necessary in areas such as arranging a meeting and managing the meetings.  One member felt that the process should be as it was before the central administration team were disestablished. The Partnership was advised that in relation to early help, there was a statutory duty which did not just rest with the local authority, for some of the organisations it was a statutory duty.  The Partnership was advised that the partnership board had agreed that the TAC arrangements were the way to deliver co-ordinated early help.  If one agency now disagrees with that arrangement, then there were serious issues which needed further discussion.  It was noted that the person initiating the TAC could delegate their meeting arrangements to their administrative support, but it was their responsibility to follow the process through from beginning to end.  The Partnership was reminded that there needed to be focus on the outcomes of the audit and shared commitment to look to improve it.  It was highlighted that from a safeguarding objective it was not to reassure anyone, but to be open and transparent as to what’s happening, so that the Partnership can then address the issues and make an improvement plan.  Once the new arrangements were put in place it would be the Safeguarding Board's role to undertake a further audit in six months' time and to make sure that things are working.

The Chairman extended her thanks to Paula Whitehead and the working party for their hard work.

RESOLVED

1.    That the CYPSP agree to the establishment of a mechanism for effective quality assurance of the TAC process.

2.    That the CYPSP agree to review recording arrangements and amend all paperwork for TAC processes.

3.    That the CYPSP agree to make recommendations to agencies on expected standards of case supervision for TAC.

4.    That the CYPSP agree to ensure sufficient resources are available so that practitioners have access to advice and challenge.

5.    That the CYPSP agree to ensure the voice of the child is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

(Ginny Blackoe)

Consideration was given to a report from Ginny Blackoe, General Manager, Family and Health Lifestyles Services LCHS, which provided the Partnership with background and information relating to the Health Visitor Implementation Plan and provided an update as to the progress being made in Lincolnshire.

The General Manager highlighted to the Partnership that since writing the report, she had been contacted by NHS England who had advised that they were looking to have four nurses with specific criteria for working with young mothers, first time pregnancy, etc. in the first two years of a child's life.  Members were advised that this matter was to be discussed further at a meeting due to held in September.  It was noted that a further report would be presented in six months' time.

During consideration of the report, the following comments were raised:-

·    Whether enough had been linked relating to the two year review and the two year old child.  The Partnership were advised that this work was in progress;

·    Delivery of the healthy child programme now that flexibility had been removed – It was reported that it was proving more challenging but that it was being addressed.  The DoH had been advised that the trajectory would be met and that work was on going to meet that; and

·    In relation to recruitment were there any hotspots struggling.  Members were advised that if people worked and qualified with Lincolnshire then they would be given a job, but people would have to go to where they had been allocated.  It was highlighted that people needed to accept that they worked for a health visiting service in Lincolnshire, and as such could be asked to work anywhere in the county.  It was highlighted there was no longer an additional demand in the East Lindsey area, as the workforce had been apportioned differently.

RESOLVED

          That the report be noted.